NOLS Blog
How to Make Hash Browns with Cheese
Hash browns have a well-deserved reputation as a delicious breakfast treat, but this cheesy version is great for lunch or dinner too—and that’s before you add nuggets of ham or bacon and a few shakes of hot sauce into the mix! This recipe requires a little forethought—both the hash browns and dried onions benefit from…
NOLS Picante Sauce
Picante perks up almost any savory recipe—try it on eggs, beans, in soups and coupled with anything on ...
Backpacking Among Giants: A Trip Report from Norway’s Jotunheimen Mountains
Photo by Amanda Klein In August of 2025, the inaugural NOLS Alumni Norway Backpacking Trip ventured into the Jotunheimen Mountains ...
Case Study: Altitude Illness While Trekking
The Setting You are on the trip of a lifetime hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal with one of your best friends. This trip has been in the works for over a year. You’ve spent countless hours training, reviewing maps, and daydreaming about being in the mountains. You can’t believe you’re finally here! You flew…
What a NOLS Risk Review Really Looks Like: A Case Study with NatureBridge
In the same year as NOLS’ 60th anniversary, we are celebrating 20 years since the formation of NOLS Risk Services. For 60 years, NOLS has operated in remote locations all over the world, and in 2005, NOLS Risk Services was formed to share what NOLS has learned about operational risk management in the process. NOLS…
Case Study: Dental Emergency while RaftingÂ
A member of your rafting party loses a tooth partway through a 4-day trip. How do you respond?
Where Play Meets Purpose: A Journey Through the Canyons
Since 2022, NOLS and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business have collaborated on a yearly weeklong expedition to the canyons in southeastern Utah. This expedition is the culmination of a semester-long leadership course for Ross undergraduate students. It combines concepts and learnings from the classroom course with the NOLS leadership curriculum in a…
Rothberg-Birdwhistell Exploration Fund: Expedition to the Peruvian Andes
In the spring of 2025, we set out on an Alpine and ski mountaineering expedition to Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. As outdoor educators with experience leading students on NOLS courses, our team shares a deep commitment to learning through challenge and a connection to wild places. Our goals: explore new terrain, attempt several high peaks, and…
How to Make Oat Scones in the Backcountry
Oat scones taste delicious plain or with honey, peanut butter, wild berry jam, or cheese. They are also excellent with soups or casseroles and make good trail food. Oat Scones ½ cup butter 2 cups oatmeal 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder Pinch of salt (allows recipe to use less sweetener) ¼ cup honey or brown sugar…
Our Public Lands Are More Than Easy Money
In the spring of 1991 I headed south to Utah to work my first canyon hiking course for the National Outdoor Leadership School.
Why You Must Try Mountaineering At Least Once In Your Life
If you want to give this activity a chance, be prepared to either hate it, or be consumed by it. Start with either taking a course at like NOLS.
NASA Sending First African-American Astronaut to International Space Station
The roster includes Jeanette Epps, the first African-American to be sent to the ISS. She is aNational Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) graduate.
First African-American Crewmember To Join The International Space Station
Jeanette Epps will be the first African-AmericancCrewmember to join the International Space Station. Epps is a NOLS graduate.
Teens in the backcountry
Mayers took a multi-week National Outdoor Leadership School backcountry skiing and winter camping course as well as a Wilderness First Responder course.
Ladakhi Women’s Welfare Network Founder Thinlas Chorol to Speak at Yale
Thinlas traveled to attend Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and then the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) where she became a credentialed guide.
Meet Thinlas Chorol: Mountaineer and more
She attended the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) where she became a credentialed guide. She returned to Ladakh to open Ladakhi Women Travel Company.
How Gap Years Can Prepare You For College: A Semester in Patagonia
After several months and many reiterations of the Common App passed, I decided to defer from Colorado College and apply for a semester in Patagonia with NOLS.
Yarn Registry – I am a Grand Canyon park ranger
I obtained wilderness first aid and CPR certifications. I did a NOLS course and a American Red Cross class before starting to work at the National Park Service.
In Wyoming, a cautious public lands victory
Aaron Bannon, the stewardship and sustainability director at NOLS, said the crowd at the hearings included hunters and anglers next to conservationists.
Molly Graham is taking on a top ops role at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Molly Graham has also worked at Google and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a wilderness instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
Steamboat Springs graduate completes Patagonia expedition
Jackson Perry, a 2014 Steamboat Springs High School graduate spent 80 days during fall term on a NOLS Semester in Patagonia.
